As it begins to look more and more like South America is going to clean up at the World Cup, I had the rare opportunity to watch matches of both Brazil and Argentina from within those countries. Each of these nations has won the cup in the past and two of the greatest players in cup history, Argentina’s Diego Maradona (now Argentina’s coach) and Brazil’s Pele, originated here. Both countries hold futbol to a standard on par with the church. When a game is on, the cities shut down as everyone watches. Here’s my report.

Late last year, around the time the Honduran president was being overthrown in a military coup, my 1st Edition Frommer’s Honduras travel guide was released. Tourism in the country, which was previously exploding, dropped to almost nothing, even in the Bay Islands that are nearly a country of their own. Even the former tourism minister said not to go there then. Not the best timing for a book release. Still, I encourage people to go there and recently even had an article in NewYork Magazine on traveling on the North Coast of the country now, because the prices are the lowest they’ll be in years.